Buoyancy demonstrating apparatus



Nov. 26, 1968 K. c. KUSMER BUOYANCY DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 19, 1966 m m i w B :M t v v E n :E QQmZ 6 T mm I l. n l w INVENTOR= KASIMIR c. KusMER w ml NOV. 26, 1968 c, KUSMER 3,412,482

BUOYANCY DEMONSTRAT ING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 19, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 5 I50 H I4 ll I b '9' I" all I40 7' v I y 5 j l /|9 fie i 4 |NVENTOR= j KASIMIR C. KUSMER yMM Nov. 26, 1968 K. c. KUSMER BUOYANCY DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FilEd Jan. 19, 1966 Eli INVENTOR:

KASIMIR C. KUSMER United States Patent Office 3,412,482 Patented Nov. 26, 1968 3,412,482 BUOYANCY DEMONSTRATING APPARATUS Kasimir C. Kusmer, Montgomery, Ill. (1021 Cochran St, Aurora, Ill. 60506) Filed Jan. 19, 1966, Ser. No. 521,630 1 Claim. (Cl. 35-19) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An endless carrier immersed in a liquid and traveling in a vertical plane. Expansible and compressible gas chambers are provided at spaced points along the running length of the carrier, each chamber having a weight which compresses the chamber during downward travel and expands the chamber during upward travel. Ducts are provided for transferring gas from the compressing chambers on the descending run to the expanding chambers on the ascending run on the carrier.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in apparatus for demonstrating principles of physics, and the principal object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of the character herein described which may be effectively employed to demonstrate the effects of weight, buoyancy and transfer of buoyancy by weight in a liquid medium.

More specifically, the apparatus of the invention provides an endless carrier which is immersed and movable in a vertical plane in a body of liquid, the carrier having a plurality of expansible and compressible gas chambers each equipped with a biasing weight. The gas chambers communicate with one another in a closed cycle so that when the carrier is in motion, gas chambers on the downwardly moving or descending min of the carrier are compressed by their biasing weights and gas is expelled therefrom. The expelled gas is transferred to the upwardly moving or ascending run of the carrier where the gas chambers are expanded by their biasing weights, thus effecting a transfer of buoyancy which, with all other things remaining equal, makes the ascending run of the carrier more buoyant than the descending run in the body of liquid.

Several embodiments of the apparatus of the invention are disclosed, which will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of references are used to designate like parts and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in vertical section, showing one embodiment of the invent1on;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional detail of one of the gas chambers, weights and cages on the carriers;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view, taken substantially in the plane of the line 33 in FIG. 2;

FIGURE 4 is a diagramatic illustration of the gas conducting duct arrangement;

FIGURE 5 is a view, partly in elevation and partly in vertical section, showing another embodiment of the invention; and

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional detail, taken substantially in the plane of the line 66 in FIGURE 5.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, and more particularly to FIGS. l-4 thereof, one embodiment of the apparatus of the invention is designated generally by the reference numeral 10. The same comprises an endless carrier movable in a vertical plane, such endless carrier in this embodiment being constituted by a wheel 11 mounted on a horizontal drive shaft 12. In

the context of an endless carrier, any point on the periphery of the wheel 11 moves in an endless path within a vertical plane, the endless carrier thus having a top T, a bottom B, and descending and ascending runs D and A, respectively, assuming that the carrier is intended to be rotated in the direction of the arrow 13.

The wheel 11 carries on its periphery a plurality of expansible and compressible gas chambers containing air or other suitable gas, such gas chambers being constituted by elongated, tubular bellows 14 which are zig-zag or accordion pleated so as to permit their longitudinal expansion and contraction or compression.

As is best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, each of the bellows 14 is contained within an elongated guide cage 15, formed integrally with or suitably secured to the periphery of the wheel 11 so that the bellows 14 is expansible and compressible in a direction parallel to the plane of movement of the carrier wheel. Thus, in relation to the direction of movement of the carrier as indicated by the arrow 13, each bellows 14 has a leading end 14a and a trailing end 14b, and the leading end of the bellows is secured to and closed by the adjacent end wall 15a of the associated cage 15. The trailing end 14b of the bellows is secured to and closed by a disc-shaped weight 16 which is freely slidable in the cage 15 toward and away from the cage end 150.

The carrier wheel 11 along with the cages 15, bellows 14 and weights 16 is completely immersed in a body of liquid 17 such as water, for example, contained in a suitable tank 18. The drive shaft 12 is suitably journalled in the tank and an operative connection to the drive shaft is made in any suitable manner.

The several gas chambers in the bellows 14 communicate with one another in a closed cycle by duct means 19 as exemplified in the diagramatic illustration of FIG. 4, wherein it will be apparent that the duct means communicates each chamber with its diametrically opposite chamber on the carrier wheel. For example, the top gas chamber 14T communicates with the bottom chamber 14B and the descending chamber 14D communicates with the ascending chamber 14A. As a practical matter, the gas conducting duct means 19 may extend through the circumferential portion of the wheel 11 and through the cage end walls 15a into communication with the leading ends 14a of the gas chambers as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, or the duct means may consist of simple pipes or tubing extending from one gas chamber to another along the outside of the wheel 11.

The operation of the apparatus in demonstrating the eifect of weight, buoyancy and transfer of buoyancy by weight in a liquid medium will be apparent from FIG. 1.

First, considering the gas chamber 14T at the top of the carrier 11 as being expanded and the chamber 14B at the bottom of the carrier as being compressed, when the carrier turns in the direction of the arrow 13 and the expanded top gas chamber 14T travels downwardly along the descending carrier run D, as for example to the position 14D, the weight 16 under gravity will slide downwardly in the cage 15 to compress the bellows 14, thus forcing gas out of the bellows into the associated duct 19. Simultaneously, the compressed bottom chamber 14B travels upwardly along the ascending carrier run A, as for example to the position 14A, and its weight 16 causes the ascending gas chamber to expand. In the meantime, gas which has been forced out of the compressed, descending chamber 14D is conveyed through the duct 19 into the expanding and ascending chamber 14A, so that under the gravitational action of the weights, buoyant gas is transferred from the descending to the ascending run of the carrier and the ascending run is thus always more buoyant than the descending run in the liquid body 17.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a modified embodiment of the invention designated generally by the numeral 20, the operation of which is the same as that of the embodi- 'ment 10. However, while the endless carrier 11 of the embodiment is in the form of a simple wheel, the carrier 21 of the embodiment 20 comprises an endless band 22 which travels in a vertical plane around an upper wheel or pulley 23 on a shaft 24 and around a lower wheel or pulley 25 on a shaft 26. Either of the shafts 24, 26 may be utilized as a drive shaft. The bellows and weight containing cages are secured to the band 22 and the gas conducting ducts 19 extend through the band, as will be apparent from FIG. 6.

It will be appreciated that, in comparison to the simple wheel carrier 11 of the embodiment 10, the endless band carrier 21 of the embodiment affords a greater operating vertical run in a relatively deeper tank 18' of liquid, so that demonstration of weight and buoyancy effects is possible under greater differences in hydrostatic pressure between the top and the bottom of the tank.

While in the foregoing there have been described and shown the preferred embodiments of the invention, various modifications may become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates. Accordingly, it is not desired to limit the invention to this disclosure, and various modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In an apparatus for demonstrating effects of weight and buoyancy in a liquid medium, the combination of a drive shaft, an endless carrier connected to said drive shaft and traveling in a vertical plane wherein said carrier has a top, a bottom and ascending and descending side runs between said top and bottom, a plurality of elongated guide cages provided at equally spaced points along the running length of said carrier, said cages being elongated in the direction of movement of the carrier and each including a leading end wall and a trailing end wall, a plurality of elongated longitudinally expansible and compressible bellows contained in the respective cages and defining gas chambers, each bellows having a leading end fixed to the leading end wall of the associated cage and also having a trailing end, a plurality of weights slidable in the respective cages toward and away from the trailing end walls of the cages and secured to the trailing end of the respective bellows, said carrier together with said bellows and said weights being completely immersed in a body of liquid, and gas conducting ducts communicating the gas chambers in said bellows with one another in a closed cycle, whereby gas in compressing bellows on the descending run of the carrier may be transferred into expanding bellows on the ascending r-un.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 264,710 5/1929 Italy.

EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

H. S. SKOGQUIST, Assistant Examiner. 

